Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 14 | Aug 26th | Players Weekend, NYY vs LAD, Cards Sweep, Cubs get Swept

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

Ugly uniforms and big results. The Cubs and Mets get swept. The Nationals, Braves, and Cards do some sweeping. Cleveland and Twins both win series. Rays lose ground and Oakland loses two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is going on, everyone. Today is Monday, August 26th. It's time to talk some baseball. Strap in. Put your headphones in. Start to do nothing at work. It's time to talk baseball. We had a wild weekend.

The Yankees played the Dodgers, the Braves, and the Mets battled. Cleveland got some good wins, but some bad news. There's a lot going on, Jake. Across the league. Let's do it. Let's talk baseball. We're talking baseball. Talking baseball, short and sweet.

How you doing, Jake? Jimmy, I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. I'm back in Western civilization. Players freak end. Are you kidding me? Oh, wow. You just go jamboy on the back of the jersey?

Johnboy and flying salami, or what are we doing? Probably just do jamboy, right? Yeah. I think in your, like, you eventually, After a couple playoff weekends, you leak into something else. You leak into like the guys you lose a bet and they bully you into being like Mr. Gray all day or something like that. Yeah, that'd be good. Yeah, maybe I just do my real name since that's not what I do most times.

Switch it up. Right. I'm players weekend every day of my life. Jimmy. O'Brien. You go last name on a jersey? That's odd. Well, I'm switching it up.

I was joking too. Yeah. How is you back with Wi-Fi? You're not coming to us from a McDonald's this time. It's good, man. It's good. Lake Ufala in eastern Oklahoma, you've got to go. Very scenic.

I'm very friendly with Jeff, the manager of the McDonald's now after setting up there. Jeff says he does Fandu pretty regularly. He's not a huge baseball guy, but he might be tuning in. because he Oklahoma. Is anyone in Oklahoma a huge baseball guy? Who would their team be?

It's tough. I think you get, it depends where you are. I think you get a lot of Texas Rangers. I think you could start sneaking into some Casey Royals territory. Oklahoma's a weird one. Like Eastern Oklahoma, you're out by Arkansas, and you're right. That's kind of one of the MLB dead zones over there. Well, it was literally a dead zone service-wise.

But yeah, good times. we had a bros fantasy football weekend, a little golf, a couple drinks, the draft itself. You're probably asking yourself why Eastern Oklahoma, and yeah, it's a good question. It's a good question. We've done it in Denver, Dallas, in OKC.

So it was actually a really cool lake. We had some bad weather. The Wi-Fi ate at my soul a little bit. But we're back. And, yeah, man, it's, you know, I'm gearing up for the playoffs. run now. That was kind of, I had a brief I L stint because I was on an innings limit anyways, and now I can just rip it. According to this map that I don't really trust. Right. It's mostly Rangers and a little bit of Cardinals in Oklahoma. Oh yeah, I guess you get some Cardinals out there. I

think you're going to lean Rangers country. This says the Royals don't really spread that far. And I think that's fair to a degree. You know, I think some of our Royals fans wouldn't like that, but not necessarily baseball country. You're either Sooners or your pokes. You know what I always like when I pull up this map and this wasn't planned? When you pull up the map of MLB locations and you see that it's really the Northeast and the Midwest areas because that was like, you know, that was what America was for as long as it is. Yes. But Colorado and Seattle, every road trip's a fucking road trip for those guys.

It's wild. Isolated. It's wild. And I mean, never, never mind the ballpark stuff in Colorado, whether you're a Coors effect person or whatever. I mean, Seattle longest playoff drought in sports. So, yeah, I mean, it sounds like an offseason episode where we make fun of both of those teams travels.

I just sent the picture I was looking at to the people in the chat and the people in the chat, Jake, are the patrons and we have some very special new patrons that are sponsoring this episode. Transition nailed. Alex Overshiner. Love that.

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Yeah, that's fair That's fair, okay, that's a loud Cory Rob, corn on the cob Oh yeah All right Joseph Fish With a C All day

Joseph Fish Joey, Joey Fish Oh Yeah You can make an Italian mobster name Out of anything Anything Joey Fish's

I mean, the other part of that is, I mean, you can also just make, I mean, you know, Jimmy bag of donuts. And it's like, oh, yeah, mob name. Well, I mean, but you just threw, that doesn't, that's not as, as play on names. No, you did good with Joey Fish. Joey Fish was laid out a little bit there. But I mean, if we're going Italian mobsters, you know. You kill him, put him in the ocean. Joey Fish sleeps with the fishes.

Yeah, because now he's Joey sleeping with the fish. Huh? We wiretapped. Are you crying or laughing? Both, man. I was sad about Joey. Both. Who are those people?

Our most recent Patreon subscribers and supporters, it's $2 a month, get to be part of the show. You know what? For talking baseball, the people in the live chat, they've gotten to, like, add names to slump watching shit. Like, they're doing big things. You get a chance to win a jersey every single month. We have a raffle for all our patrons,

and two of them at the end of every month win a jersey of their choice from affordable jerseys.com. If you're a Yankees fan, it's awesome because they don't have the names on the back, but they have every team. And I believe if they don't have a player you want, you can simply just say, hey, I want this number.

Don't quote me on that. I can get in touch if you need me to, but I think they're able to do that. I don't know. But yeah, they are our most recent patrons. They brought you this episode. We're excited to have them. How are you doing Players Weekend, Jim?

I'm good. You want to get like some quick Players Weekend? talk out before we do the reports? I think so, because we left the main topic out there, and I think this would be the main topic, but it's not really a main topic, because good baseball should be the main topic, and not ignoring the fact

that we've danced around not having white baseball uniforms for years, because the baseball also happens to be white, but... I mean, the Dodgers were white. Yeah, but I mean with colors on it and stuff. Yeah. And you can see the names and the players

and things like that, which should be, you know, a Players Weekend thing. Yeah, you reminded me. I also, for the patrons, I post the notes so they can follow along if they want. Notes. Man, I think, I don't like to be a let's bash on the MLB or let's bash on MLB show, because it's easy. Right. And I like Major League Baseball.

I love baseball. We love it. In fact, we love baseball. In fact, we love baseball. We love baseball. I'd love to be on good terms with them. But it's just so funny that the players weekend is supposed to be this fun, colorful, full of personality. And every home team and every away team wore the same exact uniform.

Yeah. You couldn't tell them apart. It was like, let's let's get their individuality out there by making them all wear the same exact thing. It just doesn't make sense. And their spin or what their thought process was was let's give. them a blank canvas so just their personality shines through but i mean that's not how it happened no and i i i mean i we recorded talking yanks last night i had the tv i had ESPN on mute in the background uh because the yanks played the ESPN night game versus the dodgers talk about that a little bit

but uh so just the highlights were rolling and you know if i looked up you couldn't tell who anyone was. I basically, you'd see a swing and, oh, there's a home run. And it's like, okay, figure out the stadium. Okay, so I think the twins are the home team. And what? So, I don't know. Like you said, it is easier to rip on it than be a fan of it. We do like a lot of it. There's some good energy. The cleats and the bat stuff, that's pretty fun. That's that stuff that people should like. Yeah, they need a, they need a better concept

with the uniforms. I don't know if they want to mix up the theme every year. Did you hear what Chapman did on Oakland days? I think this should be shared. And there's probably so many other things just like this

that I don't know of that I would share for one. But Chapman had a friend who was the baseball player who passed away before he could make the bigs if he was going to make the bigs. And I think he wore his name

on his jersey. And then he's giving that jersey to the kid's mom. Like, hey, this is his big league jersey. Like, that's fucking, like, awesome. Yeah, I think there was a couple Skag shoutouts too and things like that. So it's, I think the way I said it to you last night

is, is it's baseball to a degree. And I guess this will be the rip is that it's just a little off. That, you know, players weekend had that these kind of cool things happen. You just mentioned Matt Chapman. You've got a lot of silly nipsy. You've got fun cleats, you've got fun bats. And yet at the end of Players Weekend, the topic that will be discussed by sports shows will be, oh, they all use black and white uniforms.

You couldn't tell who the players were? And it just sucks. I mean, it seems like that straight from the Major League Baseball Playbook where it's like, okay, we've got a pretty good concept here, but the execution is a little lackluster. And again, this is the third players weekend. So, I mean, there is room to grow and we do have good things going on. So I don't know. Keep tweaking it and trying to build on it a little more and get some good ideas.

But, yeah, I mean, the uniforms, there was two teams. There was two teams in Major League Baseball this weekend, the black team and the white team. Right. Yeah. That's stupid. It's just what the white uniforms look so bad. The black uniforms growing people. I mean, I said this on talking the angst.

repeat it. Craig counsel looked like an extra from Avrilaville's skaterboy music video. Just looked so brutal. Frank Kona said he was embarrassed to go make a pitching change. Clayton Kershaw and the entire, the entire Dodgers asked, can we wear our regular uniforms on Sunday? I mean, this is supposed to be for the players. Right. And you have the players asking to opt out of something that you're doing specifically for them. And then Kershaw asked if he could wear his blue hat, not the white hat. It was just, it's just a, it's just a, it. It's a miss. I don't want them to end players weekend.

I like the idea of it. It's just you did it right the first two years. This was a swing and a miss. Yeah. And I mean, just think that we, that one Sunday night game, we saw there's a guy in the Yankees,

Tyler Wade, who came up for a pinch hit at bat and he had this silver kind of fun-looking bat. And when he went to the plate, the umpire said, no, you can't do that. Like it was too shiny,

the actual reasoning. Yeah, it had a lacquer on it. So if the sun can reflect off it. Right. It needs to be like matte colors, not shiny colors. I don't think that's a players weekend thing.

Right, but I mean, the fact that he still thought he could use that in some degree as an issue. And like you mentioned Kershaw's cap and they said he didn't get permission, but then like right before the game, they gave him permission if he really wanted. And it's just like, okay, so we found the disconnect. Like, hey, let's let's get some of the best ideas from the players put the, those in a bucket and move those forward. And I don't know. There's something there.

It wasn't a bad player's weekend. There's a lot of good baseball. But again, it's, we're sorting between two. If you're just a casual fan and you're like, I want to check out some baseball highlights. I think you'd check out almost immediately. Oh, yeah. This is brutal. You're like, let me check in on my Cardinals.

And then you're like, wait, what? Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. All right. to the baseball, the actual baseball is played. I'm going to go into the National League report, which is brought to you by our friends over at Roosevelt's. Roosevelt shirts, no vowels allowed.

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He heard that I asked for it. I wanted a... What did I want? just instrumental and he created and I fucking love it. So here we go, Jake. What happened in the National League? Jimmy, in the National League, your Atlanta Braves. Actually, they're my Atlanta Braves, huh? They sweep the Mets, including a pair of two to one wins, the first of which was 14 innings. DeGrom, I think we'll talk about him in a little bit.

Brutal for the Mets, although Jim and we'll get there, the Mets don't lose any grand. in the wild card. Braves just do their thing again. The Washington Nationals, wow. They sweep the Cubbies at Wrigley. No Scher or Corbin either, and they twist the knife winning the final game in 11 innings on a wild pitch. Wolfers B. Dogg. The Phillies, oh no, they go down to Southbish. They lose two out of three to the Florida Fishies, Jim. The Phillies lost the first game 19. to 11, and then on Sunday they lose three to two. That's pretty brutal for the Phillies. They had a chance to make up some ground there.

Jim, in the Central, you know the Cubbies got rolled up on by the Nats. Your St. Louis Cardinal sweep, my Colorado Rockies. Yep, that adds up. And a four-game set in St. Louis to take a two-and-a-half lead in the NL Central. Boogity, boogity, booggy-oo-dy. The Brewers. They take two out of three hosting the Diamondbacks. Brewers pitching held Arizona to one run in the first two games total,

including a little Jordan Liles, no hit bid game one. How about that? In the seller of the NL Central, the Pirates, they take out the broomsticks at home versus the Cincinnati Reds. Yikes. Bauer gets knocked around again. The Reds had a lead in the ninth of Game One. They blow it, and then they just blow the,

rest of the series. Pretty brutal for the Reds. And Jimmy in the Wild Wild West, you know the D-Backs lost their series to the beer makers. You know my Rockies got swept again. The Dodgers hosted the New York Yankees, the marquee matchup of the 2019 baseball season up to this point. The Bombers take down Ryu in game one. The Dodgers win a controversial pitcher's duel in game two. And the rubber match, Domingo Hermann versus Clayton. Kersha. Doesn't get better than this. New York powers their way to a win in that game.

A very nice series win after getting swept by Oakland. Jim, pretty convenient. I just mentioned Oakland. How about the San Francisco Giants with a little two-game sweep of the athletics? Baseball moves quick people. Giants win them both capped off by an Evan Longoria. Two RBI single to get the 5-4 victory on Sunday. And last and pretty much least, the Padres avoid.

a three-game sweep on Sunday behind a Machado to run Homer after they lose the first two games to your Boston Red Sox. Wow. I think Machado had an homered in like 20 games or something like that too, so it was kind of get back on track Homer. Man, what's what really, really stands out is the Cubs getting swept at home. They've been bad on the road. They've been good at home, correct?

Yes. And I mean, Lester, you had him on Slump Watch a couple episodes ago. He came off. He has a bad outing. Kintana, you had him last episode talking about how he could become a hero. He has a bad outing. Cole Hamels has a good outing, but it goes into extras and all that. But yeah, that's not good for the Cubs.

Yeah, Jim, and I think the biggest thing, like you said, the Cubs, A, they slip below the Cardinals. And all those, so A, we now have a first-tier, clean-cut NL Wildcard team. I think the Nationals have taken the jump. The offense has been insane. Their pitching has been there. I think they are what? They have a four-game lead above the Cubs to be that first wildcard team.

And they're just rolling. They've won five straight. Jim, my new Jakey, it's kind of a lot. lame term, but I just like saying in a fun way. I'm buying stock in my gnats. I'm so East Coast bias, Braves, and Nats. Yeah, well, you choose one. Well, Jim, I'm telling you why I can buy a lot of stocks.

Nobody's making you buy one stock. Jim, the Nationals, we've talked about how much we like the pitching. The hitting has been rolling. And, Jim, they've got a nice little schedule coming up. We've talked about the Mets schedule and how much they should be fearing that. The Nationals have one five straight. They host Baltimore for two. and then Miami this weekend.

So the Nats can get even hotter than they're currently doing. And you're going to hear me talking some nationals today, baby. But I think they have now, I think they have removed themselves from that NL Central slash Philly's Milwaukee Mets tier. And they're in their own next level above those wildcard teams for me. Makes sense. No, no, I think that's, I think a majority of people would. see it that way as of now. We did say that the nationals during this run need to stay within, was it five?

Or it be nice if they can get it down to four against the Braves because they have six or seven games coming up against each other in three series. And the September 5th, it kicks off. And they will have seven games against each other in a 10-day span. and I want those seven games to hold a lot of weight. So I would have loved it if the Mets could have snagged a game against the Braves with the national sweeping. If the Mets could have snagged a game,

just to make it one closer, drop it from six game lead to a five game lead, something like that, you know? The Braves just don't do that, Jim. No, I pass every test. Hot take Jake over here, you know, the two teams on buying NL stock. and the Braves are on an eight-game win-streek. The Nationals are on a five-game win-streek. And it really is brutal.

I mean, we'll talk about the first game of that Mets Braves series. But, yeah, I think the overlying NL storyline is kind of like the Mets and the Phillies, they both kind of had opportunities to make a little bit of a move. With the Cubs, I mean, the Cubs are the second wildcard team. They've lost three straight. There was chances for these teams to make move. instead of everyone just kind of stand still, which is kind of good for the wild card race. But we could have seen a team make a move and it didn't really happen.

We just talked about how Colorado is so isolated, you know, like every trip. Atlanta, after playing the Mets today, as we're talking, they had to fly to Colorado. So they were in New York City doing an East Coast swing. They got to fly to Colorado for one game against the Rockies and then fly back to the East Coast to Toronto to play two games against the Blue Jays before going home. That sucks. I'm sure they'll be able to handle that fine. It's not really a big kink.

But just from like having to fly to play one game in Colorado, that sucks. Yeah, I mean, at a certain point, grab a bunch of the AAA guys. Like there should be a rule about that. Like, I don't know. Like, we still want to play this game, but we're not shipping everyone from Colorado to Toronto. Yeah. How do you think about the Mets?

Now, like you said, they didn't lose any ground, but the Braves win all three games. DeGrom has a great performance. We'll talk about that later on. There's a really close 14-inning game there, obviously. And there is another close game. I think it was five to four going into the later innings and the Mets bullpen, you know, let the Braves score. I don't think it was Diaz, again, gave up a home run in his first batter. Freddie Freeman takes him deep.

His fourth pitch thrown. Then he walked Charlie Culberson and just comes out. Then Chris Flexon comes in. So I don't know. Should the Mets fans be like really worried? Are they out? Is this just a blip? The Braves are good and you're not going to beat them anyway.

So just as long as you like the fact they didn't lose any ground, I think if you're a Mets fan, you're like, okay, cool. Yeah, I mean there was probably some crazy Mets fans. that were thinking they could get back in maybe the NL East race. I mean, if you were that far in the deep end, that's very much gone now. No, I mean, you have to shrug. You say it's baseball and we had a chance.

I mean, the Mets were close to winning two games. The Mets were close to winning three games in this series, but that's not how it works. The Braves are a better team. It was at City Field and the Mets had all this magic going, especially that 14- inning game. What hurts me there is that the Mets bullpen, in a high leverage game, the Mets bullpen held up for a bunch of innings just to lose it in the 14th.

I think that one was obviously the dagger being the first game of the series. And yeah, I mean, you have to walk away and just say it's baseball. The fact we didn't lose any ground and this happened, that's kind of a win in and of itself. But yeah, they would, hot take, again, would have liked to get a win. win. And Milwaukee can't sweep the diamondbacks. With the Cubs getting swept, you know, and they lost the Cardinals last series, the Brewers did.

So they win the series. And I mean, if you're a Brewers fan, that's good. It's not a bad thing. But like, sweeps will, when the Cubs get swept, it'd be nice to do with sweeping. Yeah. And the other team in that mix that we didn't talk about the gym, I mean, talk about blowing it. They would be a half game out right now. The Phillies, man, they lose.

They got, A, they give up a 19 spot to the Marlins game one, which, okay, they scored 11. So that game was kind of a mess. But this Sunday game, I mean, you get to win a series against Miami, the worst team in the league to make yourself a half game back of the wild card. and they end up losing it. And that's, I don't know. I just think that's the kind of game that you look back. And we, you know, I think someone called us out a few episodes ago, and they were like, why are you guys so down on the Phillies?

And we were down on the Phillies. I don't know. I just think the other teams have been, have a little more appeal to them. You know, I mean, can the Phillies get it going? Absolutely. When Harper hit that walkoff, we were just as stoked as everyone involved. Aaron Nola's been great for a little while now. But yeah, I mean, the Phillies, that's one you got to have if you want to be in this.

Yeah. What's the Phillies rotation now? I got F in Nola Vargas, the last word. Arieta Vargas? I think Arieta is not pitching right now. He hurt? Yeah, he's on the IL. That's my bad.

Yeah. So, I don't know. Let me see you're great. Nola's good. They got Drew Smiley. Dr. Smiley going for them. Nice. Crazy.

Yeah, nothing, I don't know, man. Like, this is going to be, you know what, know what happened? When all these teams are winning, I'm so into it. I'm like, yes, push each other. Let's go. And then, like, today, this week,

they're like, all losing. And it's like, come on. Yeah. It makes, it, it makes, I guess some would say it makes it tough to buy stock in some of those teams. But yeah, I... You buy a lot of stock. Just, my National League stock is pretty well known.

I heard that you don't even really know how to buy stock. If I wanted to buy a stock right now, there would be a lot of Google searches and maybe one phone call. So no, don't know how to buy stock. 1-800 stock? Max Scher, one-game playoff? we should give the Cardinals love. They swept the Rockies.

Cardinals need some love. They took care of business against the Rockies, which again, four games suite. We're talking about all these teams that did not take care of business. So, yeah, they did their thing against my rocks. A lot of teams have been. That was rude of me because I was saying the brewers didn't take advantage of the Cubs

getting swept. The Cardinals now have a two and a half game lead against the Cubs because they get a four-game sweep when the Cubs get swept for three. So good job the Cardinals. That's fantastic. Yeah, and it's, I don't know. We know that NL Central is just going to go to the end. But I mean, right now, I mean, what have we been saying about other teams around baseball?

If there's a four-and-a-half game lead, and right now the Cardinals are up in the Central, four-and-a-half games on the Brewers. You know, there's a lot to be decided, and a lot of those teams are playing each other. But that's one of the bigger leads we've seen in the NL-Sense. up till this point. Yeah, that's true. All right, let's go, let's move on to the American League report, which is brought to you by Ventero watches.

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Are you hearing this? John boy. You hearing this? For the love of God, tell me what happened in the American League. All right. Well, here you go. The Rays and the Orioles split a four-game set. The Rays won the first two, but then ran into John Means and Dylan Bundy, who held them at bay.

The Rays lose a game in the division and half a game in the wild card race against one of the worst teams in baseball. Not good. Cleveland, they hosted the Kansas City Royals and took two out of three from their Midwest friends. Fran Mill Reyes, guy they traded for from the Padres. He had seven RBIs in the final two games. Good job Fran. I think he had not really gotten it going yet. But the big news is the bad news for the Indians.

Jose Ramirez, who had turned back into a superstar in the second half, fractured a bone in his hand and will need surgery and likely to miss the remainder of the season and postseason if that happens. All right. So Cleveland won two out of three, Jake. How did the twins fare? They also won two out of three from the Tigers. Nothing jumped out to me about this series besides Edwin Jackson got lit up again. So sorry about that, Edwin Jackson, but it seems that's just what happens when you pitch these days.

The first place, Astros swept the third place Angels. Granky pitched, Wade Miley pitched, and Framber Valdez pitch. No Cole, no Verlander, and they get the sweep. Damn, the Astros are good. They also called up a rookie who started every game. We'll get to that later. The White Sox took three out of four from the Rangers. Ariel Hirado and Colby Allard are two guys I know very little about, had never really heard of.

And they got the starts for Texas and did pretty well, Jake. How about that? As you told us, the Yankees squared off with the Dodgers in a fun matchup and took two out of three. You also let us know that the Oakland A's lost two out of two to the San Francisco. Francisco Giants, the Red Sox won games one and two versus the Padres, but could not complete the sweep. I thought it was interesting that they lit up young Chris Paddock in game one, Padres Pride Paddock, and then took the lead in the ninth off Kirby Yates, the good closer in game two. So kind of somewhat nice wins for the Red Sox, but they get shut down in the final

matchup. The Baby Jays lost two out of three to Seattle, and for a team that I've marked, as my spoiler team, they have been losing a lot. They've won one game in their last eight, and I have them better than that in my brain. And that is your AL report. As far as standings go, nothing really changed. The twins are three and a half games up on the Indians. The Yankees still have, they gain a lead,

so it goes to a nine game lead against. against the Rays. The Astros, nine and a half against the A's. The wild card is where you may find interest, and it's still the Indians and the Rays up top, but the A's

are right there, right there with the athletics. And Jim, the A's are actually a game up in the lost column versus the Rays, so. It's becoming more and more apparent. And,

I mean, we have been saying this, but I mean, it just kind of sank over me because especially I guess you know what it was seeing Oakland and Oakland and seeing the Vuvusuelas go off and all that. A really, a really good baseball team is going to miss the playoffs in the American League. I know that's not breaking news for a lot of people, but whether it's the A's Cleveland or Tampa, I mean, those teams, when they're at their best, they can play with anyone in baseball.

It's not like they're a good, it's not like they're just a good wildcard team. Those teams can play. And man, it is tied and like you mentioned in Cleveland, the Jose Ramirez injury, that's pretty brutal. They're four and six in their last 10 now. They're sliding a little bit. Oakland, man. Hey, for as much love as we gave them, they took three out of four against Houston and then

they swept the Yankees. I mean, again, think about how impressive that. truly is, they come back and they lose both games against San Fran, and I know I said it in my report there, but it's the baseball moves quickly. You know, Oakland basically put in their best week of work of the season, taking down two of, not even arguably the two of the top three teams in baseball, and then the Giants come in just across the bay and take two games, eat your lunch a little bit. That's tough. Yeah, stuff.

The raise, the raise not winning against the Orioles is bad luck. I mean, it's hard to get a four-game sweep. Parentheses, it wasn't hard for the Yankees, unpar parentheses. But it's hard to get a four-game sweep in baseball, even against the worst teams. But you've got to win three if you're the raise and the Yankees are playing the Dodgers and everything else. Like, you got to get three because now they have. They are playing Houston next. And, you know, the matchups are pretty cool.

Like, Jake, the Rays and Houston are playing three games. The three pitchers for the Houston Astros are Justin Verlander, Garrett Cole, and Zach Granky. I'm saying. I mean, so the, the Rays have Charlie Morton versus Burlander. That's fun. And then Ryan Yarbrough, who's been good versus Cole. Great.

And then I think they're doing an opener day in the next. game versus Granky or we'll see. But I mean, you're facing the three big guns for Houston. I mean, if the raise loser gets swept, it's going to get fun between the raise and What's that? Are the games in Houston or Tampa? They are, I just had it. They are in Houston.

Okay. So, I mean, that's a, Jim, you just got me kind of. excited. I'm going to be tuning in. Especially those first two games, man. Yarborough has been great lately. More in against his old team. That's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, but Oakland is going to Kansas City for four.

So if Oakland can do damage against the Royals or our bad team win three, you can get a quick swift change in the standings, Oakland versus the Royals and the Rays versus the best pitching staff. in baseball. Well, and Jim, I mean, I think we're saying a lot of things here, and I think we talked about it last episode. The race have help on the way. They've got Glasno, uh, Snell, potentially Yanni Chorinos, three really quality arms that could be back. So as long as they keep treading water and staying in this race, uh, you got to like what they're doing. I mean, the biggest hit this week might be Cleveland, man. Ramirez goes down. It feels like they have. They have. They,

had a good chance to take over the central. Now it doesn't feel like that. And now they're, they're a half game into the wild card. I mean, if, if things start getting dicey in Cleveland, I mean, that's a bad, a bad weekend for Cleveland, everything considered IMO. Yeah. Yes. Yes. You're right. But, I mean, they still have guys. I mean, they still got a nice lineup. Like if, Handmeal starts hitting the ball. If Pueg stays relatively hot compared to what he's been doing since he came over, I think they can do it, especially if Bieber and Clevenger are throwing the ball, you know. It's a big hit.

I don't think it's damning. It is, but it isn't. I wouldn't be surprised if they still went on to win. Like, I don't think they're doomed. The other thing is, Minnesota's pitching isn't great, man. like Minnesota won, but their pitching continues to kind of slide. Like Berrios, he's currently on Slump Watch and tune in to see if he gets off this week. And then you got, who else went today?

Who else went this week for the twins? I mean, the Tigers put up nine runs, then five and four in three games. There wasn't one good starting pitching outing. and it can change fast, but like, Berrios is on the slide, and he needs to get better. Kyle Gibson, he gave up 10 hits as well. So I don't think the twins are, like, steady. Yeah, I don't know.

I think if a twins fan was in here, and I know we don't look at them in the same light, but the twins are built on their offense, man. You know, I know that ballpark is crazy, but they are built on their offense, and I think we're going to be talking about a couple guys who, you know, it's not exactly the Yankees and the injuries they've had, but the twins have had some next man up stuff.

They have guys get hot at the right time and they put up big runs. I mean, that's how, that's kind of how this team was built to win. I mean, yes, you're looking for pitching out of Barrios and Odorizzi and a couple of those guys. But, I mean, that team is built around their offense and hitting bombs. Twins are about to go on a 10-game road trip. They play the White Sox, the Tigers, and then the Red Sox. Then they're at home versus the Indians. And like we said, these teams, they have six games against each other still.

And it's only what, three-game lead right now? Three and a half, yeah. So I still think those series will matter. It's a big hit that Ramirez has gone. but I don't think the Indians are. I think they're still in an easy fight for the division, especially with six games left against the Twins. Yeah, I've got a, and this is stolen.

Jimmy, you know the way I like to arrive at stats. I like to look at stats a little differently than most, I think. This is from Allison Footer writing for MLB.com. Jimmy, the Indians are 38 and 7 when Jose Ramirez has an RBI. at least one RBI, 38 and 7. When he doesn't, they are 38 and 48.

I don't, those stats do nothing for me because you'd have to show me the numbers with every other hitter. Like I don't know if that's normal or not normal. Right. I know you like those stats. I can't put like,

I literally can't put an ounce of stock into that because I have no idea. So much stock in that. I have no idea of the parameter of other players. You have to give a comparison to other players. You can't just. just say that. Oh, I don't have to at all. Okay.

Don't have to. It'd be nice, sure. Yeah. It means nothing. It's like. Oh, that's huge for me. Yeah. All right. Well, anything else? And we didn't really talk about the Yankees Dodgers. That was the two best teams in baseball squared up. Yankees beat Ryu and Kershaw, which was surprising for a lot of people. A whole lot of home runs versus Ryu, grand slam. They intentionally walked. Dedy hit a grand slam.

It was good baseball. It was fun. Dodgers' bats are kind of on a cold stretch right now. I'm shocked they bat Cody. I'm shocked they bat Bellinger 4. That's my biggest takeaway. Why is he batting fourth? As a Yankee fan,

when I saw that we don't have to face him in the first inning if our pitcher does good, I was like blown away that that's even a possibility. The MVP candidate, he doesn't automatically, getting at bat in the first inning. This is fantastic. I don't understand that. Yeah, and it's, we, we, this got mentioned briefly on talking Yanks, but it's, it's been one of the critiques of the Dodgers. They have this fun, switchy, talented lineup.

But in big games, it kind of seems like you overthink some things. Because, I mean, yeah, Cody Bellinger, if you don't have to face them in the first inning, you're doing the other team a huge favor. Huge favor. I was, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, Muncie's their next best dude right now. And in the first game, they were four and five. And the Yankees were throwing James Paxson, who has allowed a first inning run

in 11 of his last 14 games. And I was like, fuck, we got to face Bellinger and Muncie. It's going to be a first inning run. And then they're four and five. I'm like, holy shit. That was the nicest gift they could ever give. But they bat

Bellinger fourth. He's their four-hole hitter. I don't get it. they're doing versus lefties versus lefties someone told me he's always four oh I thought they slide him up

a little against righties but yeah I mean Jim this is when they played the Red Sox in the World Series last year it was sale and price taking the bump for the Red Sox

so they slid their lefties down I think they benched Jock Peterson so yeah I think I think it's it's kind of the big debate in Dodger land This switchy lineup is a lot of fun, and throughout the regular season when you need to work in rest days and balancing a lineup and stuff.

But, I mean, there's just a different effect if you see David Freeze in the top three in a lineup and Cody Bellinger. And that's not a shot at David Freeze. Cody Bellinger is supposedly the guy like challenging Mike Trout to be the best player in the league right now. Some people thought David Freeze was washed up a few years back. He's been nice. don't get me wrong. But I mean, it's just a different mentality. The last time Bellinger batted in the two or three spot was May 15th.

He's been four-hole since May 17th. Dave Roberts, baby. I mean, I don't know. I'm not as tuned in like to the Dodgers every single day. Maybe they like having. No, you know what? That's just so silly. I'm going to make a hard stance.

make sure the MVP of your team and the league gets an app bat in the first inning. It seems like common sense to me. It seems like the most common sense. I'm with you. I was shocked. But yeah, Dodgers are good. And I don't think that series against the Yankees

is indicative of anything happening in the future. But it was fun that the Yankees won it. Yeah. For you and I in Yankee fans. Yeah. And we joke about it because we're obviously in there. But I mean, Yankee fans were so down on this team. And it's not everyone.

It's mostly the bad people because they're still a great team. But like you mentioned, I mean, genuinely, Jim, people, what you just said about the twins, people very much said about the Yankees. Yeah, sure, they can hit, but they don't have any pitching. And the biggest thing for you and I, that Yankees bullpen, which is supposed to be part of what makes this Yankees team special or a part of what makes this team special. They came out, and, I mean, the term we were using,

they flexed on the Dodgers. I mean, they all came out and through their basically Chapman, Canley, Britain, and Ottavino all came out with their best Bugs Bunny pitches, whatever they got, and it was awesome. It was awesome. It was a display. It wasn't like a game. Like every out was a display where, you know, pitching ninja and I could,

like giff it and be like, look at this one. Yeah. Whoa, look at this one. It was crazy. It was crazy. So there you go. All right. I think that ends everything there.

Let's go into the segments. You ready? I think I'm ready for the segments, Jim. All right. We've got Jackie's standout performance. Jake's standout performance. Whoa. Soundboard.

Working overtime today, Jim. Jim, I've got a, and, you, You'll see a couple recurring themes this episode, as I like to. Jim, I have got a 35-year-old from your slash my buying stock, Washington Nationals. How about Annable Sanchez, Annable Lecter? Jim, he has the longest start of the weekend, 8.1 innings pitch, one-hit ball into the ninth. Jim, this is his 14th year in the Biggs, came on.

up in 06 with your Marlins. And Jim, I think what I like about this, A, he's having a really, he's having a good year. Like, let's not over in Belsh it, but Jim, 26 games started, 130 innings pitch, 381 ERA. And Jim, he was left for dead, basically, after his Detroit days. I mean, Annabel Sanchez, he had a really, he had a good 2013, good 2014, 2015, he's 31, he has a 5-ERA, not good. 2016, he's 32, he has an ERA nearing six.

It's like, okay, is this the end? 2017, he's 33, his ERA is six and a half. People basically wrote Annabal off for dead. He comes back last year and he pitches a lot of good innings for the Braves. Like, the stats would freak you out. 136 innings 283 for Atlanta last year. What? So, and you know, you never know if it's health or if it's figuring out something,

maybe a little column A, column B. Annabelle this year, 3-8-1 ERA in those 24 starts. He twirled one of the best starts this weekend. And Jim, you mentioned it with Houston. It was the first thing I saw when Washington swept. I was like, oh, I wonder if they went, you know, Scherzer, Corbyn, Strasbourg. No, they went Ross, Annabelle Sanchez, and then Strasbourg got the last game. But, I mean, if those, if the other guys in that Washington rotation are giving them something,

I mean, that's how you build windstreaks. And Annibal Sanchez, man, good for him. Yeah. Always thrown for a loop because of his name just reminds me of a pretty little girl in the south. Annie Bell. Annibale. Antibale. Annie Bell had a great game yesterday.

So good for Sanchez. You'd like the pronunciation on baseball reference. It says Anibol. Anibol. Is that how you say it? because I've never said it like that. Anibal. Anibal Sanchez.

I used to think baseball reference pronunciations were very good. And then Mike Talkman's is like completely wrong. So now I don't trust them at all. Yeah. I think they're just just whatever colloquially people say. Well, congrats. Annibald. Congrats, Annabelle.

Ony ball. On knee ball. Yeah. From Venezuela. Yeah. Jim, did you happen to have a standout performance this week? I do, Jake. I do.

It's a met. Yeah. Wait. Yeah. Jim, I missed a key part about Ani ball. Yeah. He only gave up one hit going into the ninth. He had two hits.

He out hit the team. And that might even segue a little bit into what you're about to do. Yeah. Mine is a met. Jacob de Grom. We touched on it earlier. The Mets and the Braves game one. Braves come into town.

Give him a fight. We got DeGrom. The Mets end up losing. But on the way there, DeGrom pitched seven innings versus the first place Braves. He allowed four hits and one earned run while striking out 13 batters. People like strikeouts. That's a lot. He lowered his season ERA from 261 to 256.

He's like a good start away from having a 2.5 or under ERA. That's awesome. From the fourth to the sixth inning, he recorded seven straight strikeouts. You like that? I don't dislike that, Jim. One of them was the pitcher, so we don't count that. But seven straight strikeouts.

But speaking of the pitcher hitting, the game was tied at one for one, the game was tied one to one for 13 innings. And how did the Mets get their run, Jake? DeGrom hits an Opo home run in his house painting outfit bottom of the sixth inning. Pretty impressive game from Jacob de Grom. Who had like a kind of a tough start to this season, remember?

I mean, when we were doing our daily radio show, I remember asking you because he had, I think, like, two like clunkers. They all came when it was rain delayed, which is hilarious. He had a six earned run and a five earned run. And I asked you, how low can your ERA? get if you have two, five, or more. And we quickly found out that you can overcome for those very fast and have like a low ERA. Because he has another, he has three games with five, six and six earned runs.

But he's got a two, five ERA. Yeah, I mean, I could, I could chop those stats up pretty good. He, he's, he's been great, Jim. I mean, since since the middle of May, his last 17 starts, 17 starts. 110 innings pitched, 140 strikeouts. He's leading the National League in strikeouts right now, by the way. In those last 17 starts, he has a 1-8-E-R-A. Jim, I do have bad news for you.

His cat died? Those 17 starts I was just talking about, where he, again, had a 1-8-E-R-A. Guess the Mets record in those games? 17 starts. They are 7 and... 10. Seven and ten.

Really? Yep. What a guess. I fed you that one. I'm the best. I can't believe I got right. That's why I was doing all those hand signals. Oh, there were no hand signals.

Look the patrons, no. Patrons let them know. No hand signals. That was awesome. What a pick me up by me being able to guess that. It's huge. That's huge. I think DeGrom is impressive.

It's me. I'm the standout performance now. New standout performance. Yeah. me. All right, moving on. Tromp watch. Slump watch.

We got some housekeeping, Jake. And I gave all the updates on our guys that are on Slump Watch, and there's some that I don't know if they're on or off. Josh Hader had allowed a run in five outings in a row in August. They bring him in, Jake. He gets a clean inning. He did give up a hit. you have to see the hit. It's a routine ground out to the shortstop that Locastro beats out.

As routine as it gets. Oh, yeah. Off the bat, you'd think there's zero way this is even close. And he beat it out. Now with Timmy Lowe, baby. He's like one of the fastest guys in the game. Yeah, the shortstop, I could have played it faster, but it was still just like that was routine.

So that's the one hit. He gives up. So it's a clean inning, no strikeouts, one inning pitch. But it's not a save situation. they were down by three runs and they were just trying to get haters some work in. So I, in my head, haters not off slump watch.

One clean outing in a non-save situation doesn't do anything to help the five blown saves and bad outings from before. Yeah, Jim, I'm on your side on this one because picture we would feel dumb. And this is a good way, this is a good rule of life. If you got a decision to make and you're wondering what I should make, think about which one would make you feel more dumb.

If we took Hater off and he got rocked his next appearance, we'd be saying we should have taken him off. Everyone would be laughing at us. They're short. They're in a bad percentile body fat wise. Gray hair. Okay. For you, yeah. Tiny head for you?

Tiny head for me. combs his hair with the dead fish. I think that was said last episode. Yeah, that was funny. So, yeah, they would say stuff like that. So I think he stays. So we can't take Hater off. We can't risk that.

Due to our personal flaws. Chesler Cuthbert. He was in a bad way, Jake. He was like, oh for his life. He went one for four with a walk. He only started one game. the hit was a double off Clevenger. Like this kind of, to be honest, goes into I just don't care.

Fuck it. A little bit. I think, you know, Clevenger's a pretty good guy to get a hit off of. And yeah, I mean, one for four with a walk. That's kind of, that's a solid game from Chesler Culfur, not to be rude. But it doesn't take him off slump watch. He goes, oh for four the next game, where he's slumping. Right.

But, I mean, it's a combination of. like, you know, Chesler Cuthbert is closer to Badwatch. So I think. That's also what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. I think when you put it all in the pot, Bad Watch, Clevenger's a pretty good pitcher. He's got the walk in there too.

Here's what it comes. This is a new one, Jake. It's not, he doesn't get off because he's good. He doesn't get off because he's just on Bad Watch. I'm taking Chesler Cuthbert out because I just don't care. That's tough. That's the worst way to get off. If I leave him on Slump Watch next episode when I'm doing research,

I'm going to have to go look at Chester Cutford's series. And I don't want to. I don't care. That's brutal. Sorry if you're listening, Chesler. Chesler, you're off. Sorry. Good job.

No. No. All right. But the next one's a good job. Yassie L. Puke, Jake. He was on Slump Watch because he went Ofer versus the Mets when Cleveland was in town. He goes three for 11.

With two walks, he had a hit in all three games. So they were spread out. No extra base hits, but it's a 385 on base percentage in the series and a 273 batting average. And he wasn't in a hard slump anyway. It was just, he was just hitless last series. So Yasuel Pug's off for me. Yeah, my deciding factor that takes him off, Jim, actually is the two walks. Because Yasiel isn't a big walk guy, but I'm guessing he came off that.

Huge Uber fan. He came off that last series, Lyme, mostly, and Bird. But I think he came off that last series. He's like, oh, I went Ofer. I got to lock in a little bit. I can't just be, I've been swinging a hot bat since I came over.

He takes a couple walks, a solid series from Yassil. He's off. No claps. He's off. Okay. Off. G-Man Choi, I put him on here. Because he had an Ofer series.

they were playing the Orioles, the race. So take this into account. He played two of the four games, because he's not an everyday player for them anymore. He went two for six with a walk and a sack fly in two games. So it's like a 500 on base percentage somewhat like that or a little less. It's against the Orioles. What do you got?

I mean, dude, it's not to be rude to our guy, gee, man. I mean, this is close to Chessler territory. I didn't want to do two in a row, but I don't care. You're out. Yeah. Here's a good one. You did it. Here's a good one.

Berrios, you put Jose Barros on here, Jake. Because in his last three games before this weekend, he had an 8-4-4-ERA. This week, he goes 5.1 innings pitched to the Tigers. Ten hits, five earned runs. He did have five scoreless innings. There's a lot of traffic. The guys on base every inning, but he held him at bay. and then in the sixth inning blew up for five earned runs.

In the end, still a bad outing. If he gets pulled before the sixth inning and they're like, hey, let's leave it at that. That's a good bounce back. Then we'd be saying, hey, good job. You were off. They didn't, though. And he blows up in the sixth. He stay on.

And that's on Rocco Baldelli, not getting him out of there. Not getting his win for the day. He stays, man. That's something that some managers got to know. Like how much more would it have helped Berrios to just come out in the fifth with his win for the day? I mean, now his ERA basically stayed the same. In his last four starts now, he's at an 844 ERA. And Jim, this was against the Tigers.

Like, you know, I don't care about the five clean innings. You ended up on the day with 5.1 innings pitch, 10 hits, two walks, five earned runs against the Tigers who are a joke. No, you stay. Yeah, wow. Bummer. Bummerosa, man. Well, and good news, Brad Hand. He was on here.

He had two saves this weekend. So that's a clap. Give him a hand. Good job, Brad. Use both minds. Huh? Yeah. Yeah.

All right. I threw some guys on here. You want to lead him to me? Now the new, the newbies. You put our favorite, is he our favorite name in a baseball? Maybe. Rough Ned Odors? Yeah.

It's like Roughnet, is how you would say it? I mean, I'll go to baseball reference, but we've already yelled at them today. But what would Rognet dude? Hitless weekend. So that always jumps out to me. And then I dig deeper like, okay, well, hasn't you been bad for a while?

Or was it just a hitless weekend? In his last 11 games, he has three hits and 16 strikeouts. In his last 11 games, he's slashing 079. That's his batting average. 079 is on base percentage is 205. That's a slump. That's an 11-game slump. Odor, you're on slump watch.

You're slumping and we're watching you. Yeah, they're saying it's pronounced Rougnett. And more important information, Rougnett, you're on Slump Watch. Nicknames listed by baseball reference? Stink, Stinky, Rugi, or El Tippo. So we like that. Well, the stinky's tough

because he does look like he could be a smelly guy. Oh, he doesn't smoke. good. Okay. That doesn't smell good. Jim, another guy you had on here, former top draft pick, former call-up watch, Bubba Starling. Yeah, man. Bubba Starling for the Kansas City Royals got called up.

He was big hype and then kind of lost his hype a little bit, then got called up. Is that correct? Yeah, I mean, he was in like a really good draft class. I could dig it up again. And he did like nine years in the minors. And now the royals are kind of just playing them to play him. IMO. Well, after his first 11 games in the bigs, he had a 326 batting average.

Things were going well. He looked good. Since then, in the next 20 games, he's got a 105 batting average and a 139 on base percentage. And in his last 10 games, he has a 059 batting average. He's in a bad way. And we're close to just bad watch and not slump watch, but I'll give Bubba sum string to get it back and go in the right direction. But, you know, his first month looks pretty good.

His second month looks pretty bad. That's kind of how it goes for some rookies. And now it's his, they made the adjustments to him. Now it's his turn to make the adjustments to them. And we'll see how that plays out. Jim, know what it is for the Bubba Starlings and the Chesslers and G-Man's. You can be honorably discharged off Slump Watch or you could be dishonorably discharged. And that's basically what Bubba's fighting for now.

Next week, next week he's going to be off. It's just a matter if he can get some claps, if he could get a tip of the hat, or basically boot off the stage. Okay, well, you can read the next guy because now I am interested in the pitchers he's facing. Because aren't they playing the twins? They're playing Oakland.

The next guy you put on the list, an All-Star, which people might say Wopper to Plopper, it was kind of a horse spit all-star Daniel Vogelbach a friend of the program Chris Farley in it big boy but Jim it looks like in August here you got him slashing a 131 batting average yeah well from great all-star game because every team needs a representative and he was the best mariner he's been bad 18 games 131 batting average bummer that's That's tough. Yeah.

Bono Starling faces the Oakland A's. He's got Homer Bailey, uh, fires, and then someone else, Tanner Roark. Roark, your body double. Um, yeah, I'm, uh, we're going to see Vogelbach this week. So maybe he can get the dishonorable discharge or honorable. But, um, Danny V, baby. Let's, uh, God, I would normally want to root for him. Normally I would end

That sentence like, yeah, man, let's see some big taters, but I don't want that. Yeah, because they're playing the Yankees. I don't want that. So that's just being non-biased. Jim, I've got a crew on here. I've arguably got three whopper ploppers.

Yeah, I put the first guy you have on here, on here, but then I took him off. Now you put him on, so he's on. Ain't that it. And Jimmy plays for, for my rocks and he's, you know, one of the bigger celebs out here. Chuck Nasty, Charlie Blackman. He threw up a one for 17 spot.

That no is bueno. And it's pretty crazy, man. And, you know, again, this, I think it's probably an offseason episode, but he's having another incredible year, man, a 952 OPS. Another All-Star season. His splits are insane again. Jimmy Charlie Blackman at home Do you know Charlie Blackman's home and away splits at all?

I'm going to guess he's really good at home. Jimmy at home, Charlie Blackman this year is hitting 409 with a 1.2.8-0PS. On the road, he's hitting 248 with a 694 OPS. 248? 248. It's that Kores hangover effect in Koresfield. So at home, he is Babe Ruthbury-Bonds.

On the road, he is a Daney atchavaria. But he gets one for 17, you're going on Slump Watch. Jim, one of my baby Braves, Ozzie Albys. He threw up a 2 for 19. I don't know. I'm just going to band-aid this one. That's not good. Be better, Ozzie.

I was going to say about Blackmun. The reason I took him off is because it's three games. but he's like his stretch before that he was absolutely on fire 468 on base percentage 10 games before that's that's how that's slump it's slump watch watch watch cautious um and jim my other guy i i heard you hate ozi albies because you have him as less than a cunia who you love and you're kind of shut your mouth we're kind of driving a wedge between the two best friends because you think one's better than the other. And it's crazy.

I also heard that. That is crazy that I'm driving a wedge between Ronald Acuna and Ozzy Albies. No, Ozzie 2 for 19. Slump Watch. You had the most at bats in the past four days and very few hits. And Jimmy Trevor Bauer for the Cincinnati Reds, man. God, since coming over, 2016. innings pitched a 7-6-2 ERA this weekend his start three innings pitch seven earn runs um and jim this was

something i wanted to mention when we were doing the report i think last episode i said this was kind of a big series for the reds they can start chasing going for 500 on the year which would be big for them they got swept by the pirates um by the pirates anyway there was nothing that happened there was no like fights or anything i didn't hear anything uh no funny business i think just bad baseball Aquino hit another home run he's still doing fun things Aristeas

Erstitos But yeah blackman Albi's Bauer I mean there's a there's some big fish there and the other guy that I needed To throw on there Jim Jalen Beaks You know we don't talk enough Tampa on here Jim

We will next episode after this Houston series But Jalen Beaks Jim He was the big piece that Tampa got in the Nate Evaldi trade last year to the Red Sox at the deadline. Beeks had been having a really good year up till August. He had a 361 ERA, just looking like a really solid lefty for them. In August, 22.2 innings pitched a 754 ERA. He gave up seven earned runs in five innings against Baltimore this past start.

So Jalen Beaks, and that's a, I mean, that's a slump watch. Jalen Beaks. Sounds like a basketball name. Jalen Beeks. See, you get it. I get it. I knew what you were saying. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco.

On fire. You know who's on fire? I had three on here, Jake, that I threw on here. You want to rotate? I'll go one. You go on. Maybe we should be doing that instead of just be ripping in and then you rip. I'm going to go my first guy.

Do it. Jake Cave. Good name. A couple reasons I like Jake Cave. One, Yankees, Yankees dude. Right. Two, a lot of gray in his beard. On the twins now. On the twins now, he was, it was a Yankee prospect. Lot of gray in his beard. A lot of gray. Yeah.

Love that. He started two games versus the Tigers. he went four for five. And of his four hits, three of them were home runs and the other was a double. He also had two walks. He had a 442 batting average and 500 on base percentage in the month of August. So not only were these two games against the Tigers rather impressive, Jake Cave's having a great month. He's got a 500 on base percentage in the month of August.

Talk about, you know, are the twins having guys step up? Good shit, Jake. Yeah. I mean, he, thank you. As representing the Jakes, we thank you. Jim, and talk about baseball being a funny sport. August 6th, Jake Cave was hitting 198 with a 612 OPS. Probably, like, worried about getting sent down or maybe not being a good major leaguer.

Again, that was August 6th. On August 25th, he is now hitting 278 with an 839 OPS. Basically, Jake Cave went from talking himself into, am I ever going to be a baseball player to now he might be a young, promising outfielder? It's crazy. Who'd you get on this list? Who's your first guy?

Das Baseball. Jim, I'm going to start, okay, I'm going to do a little buildup here, and I'm going to flip my order a little bit. I'm just, I'm throwing Howie Kendrick out there because Jim, I mentioned recurring themes earlier? How about another 35-year-old from the Washington Nationals? Just like Ani Ball. And Howie Kendrick, eight for 15, nothing too flashy. But Jim, I don't know. I just thought it was funny that, A, it was another 35-year-old for the Nats getting it done. B, how long has Howie Kendrick been doing it now? I mean, I remember, I think it's 14 seasons, same as Anibal. And, dude, he was just another one

of those guys that they tried to pair up with Mike Trout that they hoped he would do enough to to make the Angels good. He couldn't really. He had a couple nice seasons. They got another 35 year old on the Nationals. If you guess who it is, I'll eat your hat. Another 35 year old on the Nationals. Can I get a position or anything or no? No, there's a hat eating on the line. Hat eating on the line. Okay. Another 35 year old on the Nationals. is, uh, don't cheat,

don't cheat. Brad Brock. I don't think he's even on the national. No, no, no, it's Kurt Suzuki. Ah,

damn. Yeah. Tony Sip as well, but he's injured. Okay. Cool. Dude, the Nats kind of got a lot of 30-year-olds.

Got that experience, baby. Yeah, and Jim, just wrapping up on Kendrick. I mean, he got kicked over to the Dodgers. He had a couple tough seasons,

2015, 2016. Uh, since 2017, uh, mostly with Washington, a little bit with Philly. Howie Kendrick has been an 874 OPS guy, uh, for the past three years. Uh, some of the best years, the best years of his career from age 33 to 35, uh, juice ball. But good for you, Howie. Well, what's his OPS plus? Uh, frog, two frogs.

Two frogs? Two frogs? Because you're compared to the league. Yeah. All right. All right. Good. Howie Kendrick. Congrats. My next one is Mark Kana. Mark Kana. Kani Kana. Kani Kna. Mark A's player.

Plays for the A's guys. Versatile. He had four hits as well, just like Jake Cave. Just like Jake Cave, three of his hits were home runs in two games. His recent hot stretch, Jake, is insane. One of his home runs was a bum garnered, bad football. a hell of it. That's fun. But in his last nine games, he has five homers and

16 hits. It's 16 hits in his last nine games. In the month of August, 19 games, 446 on base percentage. 1.076 OPS. But Kana is on the fire. Is it Kana or Kana? I think it's both.

Cool. No, I don't know. But, yeah, the A's, they've got a couple guys that, you know, going into those series with Oakland, you're looking out for Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, you know, a couple other guys you know, Simian is having a crazier. They've got some guys in that lineup that can hurt you. Cana's one of them, and he has been hot lately. Jimmy, I'm going to double up quick because I've got these guys in a similar boat, and I'll let you close it out.

Jim, I've got Aaron Judge and J.D. Martinez. is. Aaron Judge is on the New York Yankees. We're a fan of him. He has a home run in three straight games. That's good. And Jim, as you'll see in the notes in our Patreon, luckily they get to see these notes. I wrote down he looks right. And when Aaron Judge looks right, I mean, the ball jumps off his bat. We saw him hit home runs to left field, center field, and right field. The center field home run was awesome. The ball just exploded off his bat. and if this West Coast trip looks like it's sparking him, if you want to hear more about it again,

check out Talking Yakes because we don't know that his approach is clearly changed. Maybe he got a little healthier. Maybe it was just a little bit of a slump mixed with all of that. But he looks great, and if he can get it going for the Yankees, who just set the MLB record for home runs in a month with a week to play in August, that's good. And then balancing it out with still East Coast Pious. talk about the Padres.

J.D. Martinez against the Padres. He had in his past three games, three homers, eight RBIs. And Jim, since July 20th, J.D. Martinez is leading Major League Baseball and hits on-base percentage in OPS. So that's about a month. Wow. Good job, J.D. Martinez. Good job, J.D. Martinez.

Hey, Red Sox six-pack of that wild card. Don't let him get hot, baby. Six-pack of the second wild card. six back of the second wild card. Do you think the Red Sox have a chance? Do Red Sox fans think they have a chance still? I honestly don't know. Yes. Yes.

They do? Yeah. Do you think they do? If you were Red Sox fans, would you think you did? I think it would be slim. You'd need to get really hot and you'd need to catch the A's and the race. So yeah.

How many games do they have against the race? I'll look that up while you give your last one. Yeah, my last one. is a guy that I'm putting on in Fuego because it was heavily requested from someone who was treating me and I forget who you are so I apologize.

Usually I try to shout you out. Jack Flaherty, pitcher for the Cardinals. Yes. Since the All-Star break and actually I'm going to include the last game before the All-Star break, it's nuts, Jake.

Yeah. It's nuts. It is not last nine games started 56.1 innings pitched, five earned runs, and 70 strikeouts. 56 innings, 70 strikeouts, and his last nine starts, has a 0.80 ERA.

He is going crazy. Yeah, Jack Flirty. He was our guy when we originally wanted to get excited about the Cardinals. He was the name that kind of jumped out. He has been twirling it. Just looked at the Red Sox schedule. They got four against Tampa in September. So, I mean, I don't know.

I think they just play good baseball, keep their head down. If you can make that six-game gap, a three-game gap by mid-September, I think you believe in anything if you're Boston. Yeah. I just don't know what they can latch on to to say, like, they haven't done it. It's been four months. Yeah, I mean, I think you latch on to Xander's incredible year, Devers' incredible year,

Jady Martinez getting it going. If you could get a little more from the MOOC man and the pitching, you know, assembles, I mean, it's baseball. Boston, your mentality is like, let's go out and get it every day. You know, Tampa, you feel like you're in control of the situation still. Oakland, you're going to need them to falter and that feels out of your hand. Oakland feels like that needs to be your good luck if you're boss and you need them to fall apart somehow.

Yeah. I don't know. I just feel like there's not a stretch from the Red Sox where you're like, if we can just do that again. Right. Like their best stretches like five games in a row surrounded by, like you can't make up like a dominant two weeks. Well, we said that before the Mets got hot.

That's true. but that like we're running out of time. It's five weeks left. Right. Right. Five weeks left in the season. They are very much against the wall. All right.

Next up. Way back up and. You. I don't even know. Goodbye home run. Who did the Orioles get hot? It's another fun one, Jake. Did you see what I put in here?

I love how much you're growing into who the Orioles get hot. Because they keep taking slump watch people and making them hot. Austin Meadows, he's been on slump watch in his last 11 games before playing the Orioles. He had a 154 batting average and a sub 200 on base percentage. In these four games versus the Orioles, he had a hit in each game, a 375 batting average, and a 412 on base percentage. The Orioles, they are slump cure. Yeah. They really are. And I think it's good for Austin Meadows. And I think, A, it's a lot to do with the Orioles pitching. I also think, man, think of that mentality. Austin Meadows, you've been slumping. You come into Baltimore. You're like, you know what? I'm going to get a couple hits and get out of this. You see one drop and you're gone, man.

It's the same thing as sending the dude back to AAA to, like, find his swing. Yeah. And that was talking Orioles. What's the next segment? Who got mad, Jim? I don't know. I have a sound bite for this one. Do I? Have I played one in the past? Do you want to play the scream? I haven't heard that in a while. I'll just play the screen. It's not perfect, but it makes us laugh. It's not great.

Who got mad? Ian Hap, who's slumping. He was going to be on slump watch, but I didn't care that much because he didn't start a lot, so it's kind of unfair. And then Contreras, who's on the IL, they both got thrown out of the Cubs game. I haven't really looked fully at the footage. Hap got called out. It's a pinch hitting with the base is loaded. And the Cubs, you know, they're in the middle getting swept and they haven't been scoring runs a lot.

So they're getting frustrated. They both got ejected. Janathan Daza got ejected. I'm not positive who Yonathan Dazes. Marlins? You're not a Yonathan Dazza guy? I actually don't know. I didn't look it up.

Who? Is he a Marlins player? And Dazza, oh, Jim, you got to see him. I mean, he is so good on the Rockies. I love watching him playing center field and pinch hitting for the Rockies from Venezuela. It looks like he's a rookie this year in 23 games. He has a 183 batting average. Well, say, I watched the highlight of him get kicked out of the game,

but they're all wearing the same jersey, so I had no idea what team he was on. Yeah. Anyway, he got thrown out for arguing. He got, he struck out on a ball. That was probably off the plate and kind of threw his bat on through him out. And the Orioles pitching coach got ejected because there was a check swing. What's that? Doug Brow Cal.

I think it was Avicel Garcia check swing that they said he didn't go on, which he did. So the Orioles got thrown out. I can't imagine being that invested still. Not the time to deep dive. into this. Do you want baseball to do something with check swings? Because it is a little silly. No, I don't know if there's anything you can do. Yeah. I don't know if there's something to do. Doug Broquel is the Orioles pitching coach. Yeah. And I never even thought about that before. Like, I've never given some thought to like, wow, the Orioles have a pitching coach who does this.

Yeah. I guess you wonder. You have to resign. I mean, if you're Doug, no, no, Jake, if you're Doug Brokele and you're the Orioles pitching coach and they're about to break the record for most home runs ever given up in the history of that movie. You have, you don't want that on your record. Like he should have resigned three weeks in. Like I'm out of here. I'll find him the job. Who's going to hire Doug Bracale? Jimmy, you're missing it. He'll be coaching in college soon. Double A. When Doug Brokeel took the job, he said, yo, these guys are going to be the worst pitching staff ever. I can't be judged on this. You have to promise you can't let me go after one. You. You have to promise. You can't let me go after one. You. year. So they're going to stink it up this year. They're going to take whatever stuck John means, maybe a couple other bodies. They'll bring in a couple other guys who have to be better. They have to be better. They have to be better. And then Doug Roquel can say after year two, he'll be like, look how much better the pitching said. We gave up a hundred less home runs the next year. That's all me. That's all Doug E.B. baby. I think this being on his record sucks. In 20 years, we're going to be like, Doug McHale, oh, he was the pitching coach.

for that team. Wow. Gonna be brutal for him. So they all got mad though. He got mad. Call up watch. We only had two debuts. I thought they were going to get like crazy. They only had two debuts.

One is kind of fun. Because Correa is on the IL for the Astros. They moved Bregman from third to short. And they called up Abraham Torrey. He was the fifth round pick in 2016. He was only 22 years old. He had only played 16 games in AAA, but he was absolutely raking in those 16 games. So they call him up.

They start him at third all four games. He got the start. All four games at third base. He went three for 15 with a walk, which isn't, it's fine, whatever. But it's kind of interesting. He's their sixth ranked prospect within the Astros, which, If you don't know that about me, that means nothing to me. Right.

But, yeah, you ever heard of Abraham Toro from your game? Not a big Abe Toro guy. I have seen Willie Castro, the other guy that calls up, another infielder there. He got called up for the Tigers. I was having a nice little year at AAA hitting 301, 366 on base. And, yeah, he came up and he goes three for his first seven. Not bad, Willie Castro. But no, I'm not too affiliated with Abraham Toro.

Knock yourself out, young fella. Knock yourself out. Not. I mean, well, I don't know. Okay. Do whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Next up.

Congrats, guys. Oh, what? Jake, who gets to go first here? You or me? I think I have the honors. I think we normally do it by... by whoever does the NL report first. So, Jim, I'll go first.

And my award is the Rice, Rice, Rice, Baby Award. Rice, Rice, Baby. And Jim, it goes to Anthony Rendon from my Washington Nationals, Jim. It's a Nats-F, baby. Jim, Anthony Rendon, you know, you probably call them a lot of names. Tony, Tony two bags, rent, all of them. Jimmy, this guy, A, is a free agent this year, and he might get paid paid. Because Jim, I wanted to give him, I almost gave him my standout performance because Homeboy had a weekend.

And by the way, Homeboy's having a season. He's hitting 329 on the year. He's got 29 homers, 104 RBIs, a 407. OBP. He's got a one dot, Jim, 024 OPS. He's going to finish top five in the NL MVP voting. And Jimmy, this Nationals offense, a little Canadian there, has taken off. He had a really, he helped, he was a big part of the final game of the Cubby series. He went four for five with a home run, two RBIs to get that sweep against the Cubs that's had me, you know, had me going for a a little bit right now. It looks like he's got a little hit streak, Jim. I didn't even have this in the notes, but it looks like he's just got a cute little, what's that, a 12-game hit

streak going. He is crushing the month of August currently. And Jim, he's a big reason these gnats are just rolling right now. 3-74 in the month of August. Buying stock in my gnats. Anthony Rendon's a big piece of it. And I thought about making it, oh, he went to rice, Jim. That's why it's why it's why it's called the rice rice table? I was going to say, why the hell is it called the rice rice okay i get it now i was wondering the whole lost your audio got me yeah so he went to rice yeah he's he's he's a he's a rice guy um and jim i i think the other part that's fun about it with these nationals and i mean harper leaving in the off season um i don't know like i mentioned howie kendrick before um you know these guys doing it for the nats it's it they've got

that fun team vibe um they're doing the weird race car stuff and the dugout which looks a lot cooler when you've won five straight. So final love for my Nats. I don't think the race car stops that cool. When you're winning, it's cool. Good job by Rendon. He always comes up on lists like who's a really good player that no one acts like they're really good.

I mean, he's going to get MVP votes for, I think, the third straight season playing in Washington. Like, you know. Do you think his facial hair keeps him out of the public eye? He might finish this year with a 1.0.0. Do you think his facial hair keeps him out of the public eye? No. Okay.

No. All right. Good to know. My award goes to the, uh, it's the, well, my award is such a bad witch. Such a bad witch award. We'll do with the worst witch. Worst witch award. Which witch is which?

The worst witch. The worst witch. The worst witch goes to this, uh, girl who is in the front row of, of a Mets game. Yeah. And Josh Donaldson walks up to her and says, can you touch my bat for good luck? And she says, I'll touch it for bad luck.

And then touches it. And then he hits a home run. So girl, you're such a bad witch. Like you cast the wrong spell or you're a liar. Like, what happened? You totally messed that up because he hit a home run when you said you were giving him bad luck. He's the worst witch of the weekend for sure.

Donaldson hits a home run, which I may add is the most juiced ball home run I've seen thus far. Soto hit one, Endeavors hit one. It's up there. It's like that was not a home run swing. Yeah, there's been a couple tough ones. Josh Donaldson, man, my Braves, Jim, I'm buying stock in them. Stop buying stock, Jake. He's having a great August, and you know how happy I've been about the top three in that Braves lineup.

I mean, Donaldson basically deserves to be in there. He's got six homers in his past 10 games, one dot, 188 OPS. You're right. One of them was super fly ball to shallow left that got out. The wind was blowing super hard too. I don't know if you saw that. The flag was like... No, I did.

But it still was like not... He didn't even square it up. Yeah, shouldn't have been a home run. But hey, counts. But see, that's why I'm saying that she's such a bad witch because we have such a fluke homer. Not only, like he hit a home run When he shouldn't even hit a home run

That's how bad her bad luck was Well, I think I think you're underestimating Josh Donaldson as a warlock Because he came over And said if you touch my bat You'll give it luck She tried to outwitch his warlock

And it just didn't happen That's a good call Thank you So how many guys do you have now? You got the Nats, the Braves, Akuna. I mean, Braves and Akuna could arguably be the same team. I like the Braves and the Nats a lot, all right?

Someone tweet out all of Jake's guys. I feel like there's more. There's not. You got a lot of guys. You were like basically making out with Ian Hap earlier. Oh, that's my guy, Ian Hap. Me or you? Not me.

Not me. I almost put him on slump watch, but I felt too bad. Elevator Talk is brought to you by Jimmy and Ian Hap making out. Jim, who is our elevator team today? You ever made out in an elevator? You definitely have. You definitely have. That's like a Jakey classic.

How many times you make out in that college? That might be my number one makeout spot. Yeah, that is perfect. Trap them. If this was family feud and it was like, yeah, I think that would be number one. If you're trapped in a. small space with me, I'm probably going to make out with you.

Okay. Well, if you're stuck in an elevator with someone that you don't want to make out with and maybe they're a fan of a baseball team and you're like, shit, I need to know what to say to these guys. I'm going to spin this wheel. Random team. You'll know. Cardinals?

I like it. I think they were one of our first ones, but they're a good team to do it about. We told you if you're like, yo, dude, Jack Flaherty's been on fire. Yeah. Opened up elevator with that. I feel like he's too unknown in like the grand scheme of baseball for how well he's been doing. I mean, obviously you got Goldie and you got Yadi called Dexter Fowler's home run like four days ago. Before the pitch was even thrown, Yadi put his hands up in the dugout and was

celebrating it. So that's really cool. That's a conversation piece. Like did you see Yadi call that shot? That was pretty fun. But basically they're playing good ball and they're in a close race. So you got a lot of bodder to talk about. Yeah, they got Harrison Bader's back. He's playing center field, not hitting well, but he plays one of the best defensive center field in the game. I like that a lot. Marcelo Zuna, man, this guy gets overlooked a lot. He's having the best season on this team. He's 871 OPS. He had a really big weekend. I thought about giving him an award. These Cardinals, man, they're in top of the Central. What's going on that bullpen? Giovanni Gallegos, he's still been doing really well.

Carlos Martinez is closing for them now. Yeah, I don't know. Dakota Hudson is young and doing good things. What else do you got on St. Louis, Jim? They haven't had a, their rotation has really held up, which is kind of cool. They've had seven guys make starts for them, Jake. Yeah.

I don't know what the rest of the league is. I know the Yankees have had nine, but they've had, they've had like Jack Flaherty, 26 starts, Miles, McColless, how you say it? Mickelis, yeah. Michaelis, 26, Dakota Hudson, 26, Adam Wainwright, 24. Like, these guys have been there all season.

Yeah, four guys with 24 plus starts is pretty impressive. Yeah, that's good for them. Giovanni Gallegos has been really good for them. I think you just said that, but he was the trade that everyone says they lost. And it's like, no, he's pretty good. I forgot Andrew Miller's over there. Yeah, I guess that's what's funny about the Cardinals. All the names that you'd know on this team, I mean, Adam Wainwright, Michael Laca, Carlos Martinez, Andrew Miller, I mean, Matt Carpenter, like, Yadier Molina, all those names, those guys aren't really having good years.

So if a couple of those guys could figure it out a little bit, I mean, maybe we'd, maybe I'd think about buying stuff. at a team like the Cardinals. Yaddy's having a last good week. He's 483 on base percentage in his last seven games. So that's good for him. That's good. The one guy, and this will be my, I'll ask Cardinals fans to reach out for me.

Tommy Edmund, he almost got an inflago this week. He had a big week. I don't know anything about him. So if someone wants to talk to me about Tommy Edmund, I'm here for it. You don't know anything about Thomas Hayunza, Hayanzu Edmund? I mean, I didn't say that verbatim, but yeah.

La Hala. California? La Hala. Geez, 24 years old. Birthday, May 9th. Dexter Fowler having a nice August for them. That's good. Yeah, he's getting hot.

It's good. Who do they got? What's our one elevator line? Is it Jack Flaherty and that's it? Yeah, so you think they can take the division if you're going like cookie cutter with it? Yeah. You think they're going to take the division? I go Flaherty and Dakota.

Hudson and I'm like yeah we got some young arms huh and then I kiss him and I'm out of there. That's if you're like if you were with a real fan and like they actually want to talk shop but if it's casual you're like do you think they're going to take division yeah look pretty good. They got a series coming up against Milwaukee which is another kind of just mini combo I wanted to do

to end the show Jake. What series are you most looking forward to this week because there's a couple good ones like we said race. Easy Houston Tampa. Yeah. Easy. Okay. All right. The raise in Houston. that's a good one but brewers cardinals

like good the broo i mean the cardinals can bury the brewers a little we said four and a half back bring those players weekend we're all black for the funeral wow that's a good one brewer's need to win brewers need to win pretty bad there and then i think that's really all there's not too many other others like uh there's a lot of bad teams playing good teams like nationals are playing the Orioles. Phillies are playing the Pirates.

Braves are playing the Blue Jays. Indians are playing the Tigers. Like there's a lot of matchups where it's a good team versus a bad team. There's not many good good. Cubs Mets is interesting. So it's Cubs Mets, Cardinals Brewers, Ray's Astros. Those are the interesting ones. Oh, Cubs Mets is good.

Both teams just got swept. Yeah. Redemption Zanay is. That's a good one. Good one. All right. I think I'm just going to play that boogie as the outro. Boogie.

Thank you guys for listening. We appreciate it. We love you. Leave a review rating, five stars, or whatever. It is tweet at us. Tweet all Jake's guys at us. I want to know. I think you got five plus guys.

Two teams. Five guys. You and the elevator making out with all five of them. See you guys later. Thanks.